Although his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen bagged fastest lap, Massa
drove to his third consecutive victory from pole position in today's
Formula One race at Istanbul Park. The Brazilian put his stamp on an
event in a manner not seen since the days of his Ferrari mentor and
seven-time world driving champ Michael Schumacher.

"I think I can get a passport here already," a tickled Massa laughed.

Runner-up Lewis Hamilton pushed McLaren Mercedes back to its expected
place as co-juggernaut with the Italian team. Raikkonen finished third.
The BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished fourth and
fifth, respectively, ahead of Fernando Alonso for Renault, Mark Webber
for Red Bull, and Nico Rosberg for Williams in the points. Heidfeld
improved from ninth on the grid.

"It's just fantastic," Massa said. "Today was a difficult race,
actually. Lewis was pushing me hard, a lot. For the whole race."

Once the safety car cleared off after a jostling start that took full ten
seconds for the lights to go out and prompted Force India's Giancarlo
Fisichella to rabbit over the back of Kazuki Nakajima's Williams,
Hamilton sped away behind Massa, determined not to let the Ferrari out
of his (gun)sights. They pulled slightly ahead of Kubica, leading Alonso
after the Spaniard passed Raikkonen, who had tangled with countryman
Heikki Kovalainen at the start. Raikkonen recovered to pass Alonso on
lap 4.

Massa attributed Hamilton's pesky pushing to a light fuel load.

"Then my team told me straightaway he was on three stops," the Brazilian
said. "That for sure was a little bit of help because he was very
strong. I couldn't hold him in the track so he passed me. But then I
knew I still had a big chance to win the race."

Hamilton, who passed Massa for the lead on lap 24, was disadvantaged by
three stops in part because the Istanbul Park pit lane is so long and
takes so much time to negotiate. But tires remained the McLaren driver's
bugaboo.

"Today we decided on the harder tire," Hamilton said. "We knew it was
going to be very tough to challenge the Ferraris and to be honest we
were just hoping to get some points, to finish in the top five would
have been good. The balance of the car was great. On the hard tires I
was able to keep up with Felipe and keep pushing.

"I have to say the reason we went with a three-stop was due to
Bridgestone. They were concerned, well, they thought that if the tire
was going to fail, like it did last year, and therefore they made us
do a three stop as it was the safest way, the safest route to go.
Unfortunately for us, that put us in not such a strong position to win
the race."

World driving champ Raikkonen drove with a damaged front wing, courtesy
of close quarters with Kovalainen at the start. Kovalainen's need for a
tire change thereafter put him in the non-points wilderness for the rest
of the race.

"Unfortunately for both of us, I broke the front wing and he had a
puncture," Raikkonen said. "We just used the front wing for the whole
race because it takes too long to change it and it wasn't too bad, so,
bit difficult but at least we got some good points."

See, that's all we want in a World Driving Champion, a fellow who drives
to a podium finish with a broken car then tells us it would take too
long to fix so why bother. Raikkonen moves to a seven-point drivers-race
margin ahead of Hamilton, who is joined on 28 points by Massa. Kubica
follows on 24 ahead of Heidfeld on 20. Ferrari consolidates its place
atop the constructors heap. With 63 points, the Red Horse prances ahead
of BMW Sauber, 44 points, McLaren, 42, Williams, 13, Red Bull, 10, and
Toyota, nine.

Only three runners failed to finish. Fisichella, already starting
at the end of the grid for running a red light on pit lane to start
Friday practice, made the mess of Nakajima's Williams on the first lap.
Fisichella said he had to react to a twitching Scuderia Toro Rosso of
Sebastien Bourdais. Bourdais spun off on lap 25.

Veterans David Coulthard for Red Bull and Jarno Trulli for Toyota
rounded out the top 10. Honda's Jenson Button led Kovalainen. Toyota's
Glock came 13th ahead of Rubens Barrichello for Honda, Nelsinho Piquet
for Renault, Adrian Sutil for Force India and Sebastian Vettel for
Scuderia Toro Rosso. Wunderkind Vettel finished his first race of the
season. He outlasted a tire puncture and a faulty fuel rig that called
for an additional fuel stop. "At least I saw the checkered flag," he
said.

Poor Kovalainen, fresh off the scary crash in Spain, qualified on the
front row for the first time only to spend the race fighting through
the field from 18th. Kovalainen finished 12th after putting passes on
several runners, including twice on Piquet and Glock. Glock said he was
frustrated at having better pace but being unable to show it for being
caught up in the leaders lapping.

"Not a lucky race for me as I made a bad start from the dirty line
on the grid," Kovalainen said. "After the start, Kimi and I touched
slightly, which caused a slow puncture to my left rear tire. Initially,
I was not sure whether the tire was damaged or not, but during the
safety-car period, I realized that I had to come into the pits for a new
tire. That was almost it for me, because with my heavy fuel load and the
traffic, it is extremely difficult to gain any places during the race."

Barrichello became the longest-serving member of the F1 fraternity by
finishing his 257th race, replacing the record 256 held from 1993 -- or
the length of Barrichello's F1 career to date -- by Riccardo Patrese.

The likable Barrichello outlasted two of the four F1 teams that have
employed him. He began Formula One with Jordan (1993) moved to Stewart
(1997), then to Ferrari (2000) and to Honda (2006). His first victory
was a memorable drive from 18th in rain at the 2000 German Grand Prix
in Hockenheim. Barrichello shed tears of joy and possibly relief on the
podium, later saying he was unaware a spectator ran onto the course
during the race. The Brazilian, whose experience makes him savvy enough
to remove his sunglasses for interviews, told television reporters on
the grid at Istanbul he sees 300 races as a reasonable goal.